-measuring by weight was a big step for me. Luckily my math skills are somewhat less than stellar and converting recipes from volume was way too much work, so I bought a scale. For some reason, gram measurement was confusing. I would look at a recipe and ask myself if they mean liquid grams (!) or if they mean grams by weight? I think I actually looked on the measuring cup to see if there were grams marked. Okay, stop laughing you guys out there, until a very few years ago, I had spent a lifetime only measuring by volume. When I first started trying to bake from a TFL formula, I would avoid any except those where volume was listed. Think of how many great things I missed, good thing search history is so efficient. Ah now, if it was only my horizon that expanded with those projects.....

No doubt you will soon find yourself using weight much more than volume, it is so much more accurate, and yes, easier once you get used to it. Most important is that you enjoy the process of turning all those individual ingredients, liquid or solids, into a wonderful loaf of bread.

Ok, sorry. I suppose we don't have to worry about dark matter until we travel interstellar, setting a oven timer during warp speed or something like that. I reserve my comment for the 50yr TFL celebration, Mars edition. :)

As we're not likely to be baking on other planets any time soon, most people casually interchange mass (a quality of the thing itself) with weight (a force acting on the mass as a result of gravity). So yes, things have a mass measured in grams, and a weight measured in newtons.

All things, but not all things are 100% liquid. Milk is counted as 100% liquid. According to the notes I have taken from various sources, eggs, oil, and honey are considered 3/4 liquid. Added fats make the dough handle as if it were wetter even though they contain little or no water. Added sugar makes it handle as if it were less wet even though it is not flour, because sugar absorbs some water. And, although that is not in my notes, water roux makes a much wetter dough that handles as if it were not that wet. This last is very handy, but probably beyond what you need to know at the moment.

I have a habit of doing this; jumping on things people say. It's only that I feel compelled to correct, incorrect statements...

Sugar - While sugar absorbs water as you say it's effect on the dough itself is incorrect. Sugar makes the dough sticky. But more importantly it acts like water, in that it contributes 'flow' to the rheological properties of dough.

oil has any water in it. If it did, the water would separate out and have the oil floating on top of it. Oil is counted as zero for hydration for bread baking purposes as a result. Oil will make the crumb more tender and possibly the dough feel wetter or smoother if large amounts are used. Butter in the USA has about 20% water for the cheap stuff and about 18% for the good.

Although ingredient weights vary a bit from kitchen to kitchen, here are my general volume-to-weight conversions.

1 cup flour = 140 grams1 cup sugar = 200 grams1 cup water = 243 grams

These work great for me for bread and most other baking. Others on TFL might use slightly differnt values. Milk is about the same weight as water (depending a bit on the kind of milk you use), and oil is only slightly less heavy than water.

I was a 'volume' baker too until I discovered TFL. I never really knew what I was doing but once I learned baker's math almost all of the mysteries I was mystified by fell away. I LOVE BAKER'S MATH :-)

What I love equally is my Kitchen Calculator (HERE) because it lets me convert any recipe I want into a formula. It deals with volume, grams or ounces and has capabilities I can't figure out yet but haven't needed to use.

Not sure this even addressed the OP question but it seemed like an appropriate 'plug' for a handy kitchen gadget :-)

Janet, even though I can use the Rule of Three, this calculator would come often handy. I'll then invest in a digital spoon for weighing very small amounts, too.

Otherwise, I can only recommend to get a scale that can switch between ounces and grams, and can be put back to zero whenever adding a new ingredient. I compared several volume/weight conversion tables in different cookbooks (from Cook's Illustrated, Berenbaum, ITJB, Peter Reinhart) and what a cup of my own flours weigh - the difference is remarkable. Especially for larger amounts this can affect the result quite a bit. This is the scale I use for years.

Sometimes I feel a little bit of schadenfreude that you Americans with your prehistoric measurements have to learn how to deal with metric measurements....:)

We aren't all alike over here. ;) But really, I am surprised that someone with enough scientific knowledge to distinguish between weight and mass has never encountered grams used as weight since metric units are used in science. Grams are on most of our products as an alternative unit of weight, right after lbs-and-or-ounces.

Karin My second favorite scale (I have the same one you linked to and it is my 'favorite') is this one by DigiWeigh that cost less than $15.00. Does the small stuff which I really don't have to use much but it is a fun little gadget to have around. Helped my son out today for one of his chemistry assignments :-)

The United States is a metric country and has been one since 1875. But for many reasons the metric system is not used here for daily life even though for many people who work in labs and manufacturing the standards used are all metric based.

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